Sketchbook pages 50-53

I've been doodling in my sketchbook!  Hooray!

1.   2.

3.

4.

1. Gesture sketches.  I referenced poses from a book about Bruce Lee called Bruce Lee; The Art of Expressing the Human Body.  The quote reads, "Knowing is not enough, we must apply.  Willing is not enough, we must do."

2. I read an article about Marilyn Manson's love and use of make-up and wanted to use some red and blue paint.

3. A collage; "Shamanism.  Explore. Learn. Discover.", "Impulse.  Mania.  beauty.  liven up.  day-night.  amazing.  choices."

4. An important reminder collage; "Wake-up call: The 'Not Good Enough' Trap.  Some of us are so used to feeling bad about ourselves, it's become normal.  We have to make a change now, to let go of the 'ideals' we've been taught to achieve, and to stop being ruled by fear.  Essentially, we are addicts, addicted to viewing ourselves in a negative way.  Basically, we're crippled by the fear of not being enough in general.  We have learned...to be afraid of being imperfect - and of being human. That's no way to live. It's tiring and uncomfortable and time-consuming.  We need to stop thinking of ourselves as insufficient, as not good enough.  Essentially, we are addicts, addicted to viewing ourselves in a negative way. A wise woman once told me you can't just stop thinking something, because that leaves a void; you have to replace the old thought pattern with a new, healthier one. What if we replaced our negativity with positivity, replaced the hate with love?  I look in the mirror everyday and say, 'I love you; you're beautiful.'  My mind didn't want to break the habit of hating myself. But the more I did it, the more natural it felt...until it eventually felt good.  I'm over feeling bad about myself."  "Be your beautiful you."  "Kick the habit."

HP&THBP 1.6180339887...Ch.4

Title: HP&THBP 1.6180339887...

Genre: Fan Fiction, Spiritual/Drama

Current Chapter: 4 - Heirlooms

Chapter Word Count: 2,698

Total Story Word Count: 10,809

Summary: Two years after the Final Battle, Harry Potter receives an unexpected and rather unwanted letter amidst his already tumultuous life. He embarks upon a new quest, this time a more deeply interpersonal one as he blazes a trail down what's left of Severus Snape's memory lane. Is he truly ready for his parents', or more accurately, Severus Snape's history?

Find the story on FF.net!

Read the story with its original format!

IV

Heirlooms

SHOCK was what Harry felt when he read that sentence in Snape’s new letter to him.

Harry Potter, I also have memories from both your parents.

But, how?! Harry wondered, his mouth hanging open.

The letter didn’t say and there wasn’t too much to the letter after the shocking bit, just detailed instructions on how to mix the catalyst to view the memories, which sounded suspiciously like complicated Potions brewing to Harry.  

After staring at the letter with the glow of his wand for some indeterminate amount of time, he had finally lit one of the two candle-filled lamps in the sitting room and had continued to sit staring off for another indefinite length of time.  

This is mental!  This has to be some cruel joke!  A very elaborate cruel joke, mind you.

Harry’s mind kept coming back to how.  How had Snape set this up?  How had Snape gotten a hold of memories from Harry’s parents, who were dead long before Snape died?  How, how, how?

It just couldn’t be possible...

Craigieburn Wood (Take 1)

I used to play piano.  I haven't touched it in like over 5 years (you see a theme with me here? I need to be more dedicated to my arts!)  So I set up my keyboard the other week and sight read a tune and played something!  So here's me playing a Celtic tune by the name of Craigieburn Wood (warning: it's a bit stilted because, again, I haven't played in years!)  But it felt sooo good!  I'll do another take soon!

Old Sketch of my Partner

I found this old sketch the other day and was rather titillated by it - it's my partner*!  He's playing video games.  He and I have been together for 12 years!  That's longer than most American couples stay married these days!  I love him, he's so cute, I can't get over him.  I guess we're old souls or something, because even after everything we've been through (and there was a rough patch these past few years) our bond is stronger than ever and we still want to be with one another (and we met in Middle School).  

His father wants me to do a painting to put up in his office - I ought to get on that!

*I use "partner" as a gender-neutral term - I'm an androgynous, sometimes gender-fluid lady-person and he's also rather andro and effeminate but identifies as a male-person.

Short Story - The Zoo

Title: The Zoo
Word count: 1,898
Rating: K+ (for mild elements of gore)
Genre: Horror/Suspense Fiction
Background: I had three random images: A cracked egg, a T-Rex, and a ticket-stub.  I made a story out of them.  A small homage to my partner, who used to dream of T-Rex's chasing him when he was little.
Link to the Short Story - The Zoo (you can also read and review this story, as well as others, on my FictionPress )

The Zoo

Today was the day.  Oh yes, it was going to be a day!

Simon was going to see the tigers!

His mother had been planning this trip to the zoo for the past week now, and Simon’s excitement had been building and building and now, on this day, the day, he could hardly contain himself.

Simon leaped from his bed, thinking he’d save his mother some time by dressing himself today.  Then he bounded his way downstairs (making as much noise on the hardwood as possible) to the breakfast table.  He hoisted himself onto a chair, and sat, bouncing up and down.

“When is it going to be time to leave?”

Mom glanced at him from her position near the stove where Simon could smell eggs cooking.  “You in a rush?”

Simon rolled his eyes.  He wanted to say, “Duh!” but he couldn’t say that to his mother.  Instead he said, “I’m just really excited.”

Old Figure Drawings

I've been uploading content onto my deviantART again and I just dumped a bunch of old figure drawings on there.  The nostalgia was hittin' me somethin' good so I've decided to post them here to inspire me to draw EVERY DAY (newsflash: I started a drawing today!  I got my easel out and everything!  omg!).  All of these drawings are from 2007 when I participated in a three-week program at University of Oregon called JumpstART!.  It was one of the best experiences of my art career thus far.

All of these were drawn with a time limit and a live model.

I'm pretty proud of these still, despite them being...OMG SEVEN YEARS OLD!!!  (Holy cow!  Has it been that long, really?!)  I've got to get crackin' on some new pieces!  Thanks for looking!  Cheers!

HP&THBP 1.6180339887...Ch.3

Title: HP&THBP 1.6180339887...

Genre: Fan Fiction, Spiritual/Drama

Current Chapter: 3 - The Prince's Humble Abode

Chapter Word Count: 3,210

Total Story Word Count: 8,111

Summary: Two years after the Final Battle, Harry Potter receives an unexpected and rather unwanted letter amidst his already tumultuous life. He embarks upon a new quest, this time a more deeply interpersonal one as he blazes a trail down what's left of Severus Snape's memory lane. Is he truly ready for his parents', or more accurately, Severus Snape's history?

Read the story in its Original Format

Find the story on FF.net!

III

The Prince's Humble Abode

APPARITION always made Harry quite dizzy.  He stood for a moment staring at the cracked cement beneath his feet, getting his bearings back and his faculties functioning normally before he took his surroundings in.  It didn't take too long and soon his eyes were roving over a dilapidated, dingy, near-deserted spread of outdated brick houses with an old factory chimney looming on the hazy grey horizon.  Harry himself happened to be on a street corner near a small, gross-smelling brook, which wended its way on his left and on towards another grouping of slightly nicer houses.

Harry began to recognize the area from the memories he had witnessed of his mother and Snape as children, although the years had made the area itself worse for wear.  The rusted, crooked street sign did, in fact, read "Spinner's End".  

Being on the correct street, Harry decided that the only way to go was forward and so forward he went.  He began to wonder, after passing what had to be the seventh-or-so boarded-up house, if anything still lived in these sad little dwellings at all anymore.  

Not that he was worried about being seen or anything (he was usually most comfortable in Muggle jeans and t-shirt anyway) but he found the lack of people rather comforting, oddly enough.  At least he felt that no-one was going to bother him about anything he was or wasn't doing here.  

Here, he was only here for one thing, a thing of his own choosing again, with no-one to bother him except the memory of a dead man.  

The house that Jack...

...grew up in.  Who is Jack?  Why, Jack is my OC (one of them - I'll do a post about them soon).  He's one of the stars of a graphic novel I have been working on for ages and WILL complete in the near future!  Anyways, here's the sketch I wanted to share, it's from months ago, probably summertime:

The house that Jack lives in.

It's a stately, creepy, all-white Victorian affair that does exist irl.  It's perfect.  There's a little basement-flat entrance on the right behind some bushes there that is especially neat and creepy.  That's the landlord's entrance.

I ought to get a photo for reference but I don't want to look like a creeper, taking pictures of someone's house (not that I didn't look like a creeper sitting on the curb sketching this...)...struggles!

"artsy fartsy" sketchbook pages

New pages from the sketchbook!  I guess I dredged up old art school exercises 'cause these are all blind contours & "artsy fartsy" type doodles.  Remember, you can see all my sketches together in one place in my online sketchbook ;)

cups cups cups...(drinkin' out of cups...)

 

use your eyes - can't you tell this is a hinged box?! jeez!

all these cups are beginning to look like the Mad Tea Party!

...at least we got some color in that last one...

...but wait!  there's more!

partners always make good subjects!  

when he saw these he said, "cool! looks like ghosts playing violins and stuff!"

right on.

It was nice to draw on paper with some different physical media again.  I actually started wishing I could be drawing on the tablet when I was working on those shaded pencil cups - who'd 'ave thunk it, me, actually enjoying drawing digitally more?!  Haha!  It's pretty exciting to me, honestly.  You can almost see the disinterest in these sketches...I'll just have to get on my tablet and sketch it up and see if this feeling is true!

deviantart and old art

It's amazing what patterns one will find when looking over old projects.  I recently got back on deviantART and while looking through tons of files of my old art, I couldn't help but notice certain palettes I would come back to, certain themes, certain angles I draw faces from; it's given me some good insight into the kind of artist I was and glimmers of the artist I hope to be.  Good food for thought!  I also found some of my original ideas/sketches for completed pieces.  For instance:

The original sketch:

Followed by the finished painting:

Interesting to see how the piece morphed (I had honestly forgotten about the ink sketch, I had grown so used to seeing the painting).

Or like this POS:

Sketch:

Final:

(This multiple face thing came up again throughout the years).

Fun stuff!  But, yeah, totally back on deviantART again so check me out there as well as ConceptArt.org!

Some show-inspired Sketches

I've been on a semi-nostalgic anime kick recently (I mean, who hasn't?  The whole industry is exploding with blasts-to-the-pasts right now {google Sailor Moon Crystal if you need a reference}).  I've currently been engrossed in Dragon Ball Kai (currently on the Majin Buu Saga woo! can't wait for the new episode tonight!) and Revolutionary Girl Utena, the latter of which I have never ever seen and it has been exceeding my expectations beyond my wildest dreams (who doesn't love esoteric-alchemical-inspired-japanese-goth-rock during sword duels with upside-down-floating-castles in the background?!?!?!!!!  slash those gender stereotypes to bits!!!)

Needless to say, I've been sketching a tad during episodes to keep my hands busy.  Here's a few:

I was really touched by a couple of the dueling songs' lyrics, so they made it in here (I made a separate blog post about them if you wanna know what I wrote).  There's the Rose Bride Anthy Himemiya summoning the power of Dios and Saionji-practicing-a-fighting-stance reference quick-sketch (warm ups to get my hand going).

Here we have a silhouette of Nanami and the backside of Utena walking during the opening credits song as well as hair and mouth practice (I really like the rendering of the mouths in this anime - very androgynous and sensual and the hair reminds me of the hair animation in The Last Unicorn). 

I also loooove the eyes!  Here I've drawn stylized feminine & masculine eyes.  There's also Utena's profile, done in a mix style of my own and the show's.  Anime hands and legs (because all I seem to draw is heads and busts!!!)  The words I have written are, from left to right, as follows; "The angels who were passed over don't need wings to fly.", "I'll believe in myself because I want to believe.", "Absolute Destiny Apocalypse."

Now we're into the DBZ stuff!  Here we have all sorts of Space Armor!  The longer your spandex, the higher your power level!  The more armor you have, the higher your rank!  Or so it seemed to me...I'm probably way off (better check the fandom for that!)  I love how space armor seems gender neutral.  

Ah, the Prince of ALL Saiyans (or Saiyajins...I'm not picky).  I love how Vegeta specifies that he is the Prince of ALL Saiyans...like, all 2 1/2 Vegeta, all right.  I love his little angry cat face!  And, yes, that does say "legendary super butt" with a little heart next to it.  Don't judge.  We all have our extreme fan moments. (Also, yes, that is Usagi of Sailor Moon making an "oo" face with a horrendous attempt at a cartoon rabbit on the right there).

The purpose of these sketches was to attempt a cartoony/comic book style; I'm not necessarily going for realism...though a realistic drawing of Vegeta's ass might not be a bad idea...

CLEARLY I NEED MORE BRANDY IN MY TEA.

HP&THBP 1.6180339887...Ch. 2

Title: HP&THBP 1.6180339887...
Genre: Fan Fiction, Spiritual/Drama
Current Chapter: 2 - A New Quest
Chapter Word Count: 2,676
Total Story Word Count: 4,901
Summary: Two years after the Final Battle, Harry Potter receives an unexpected and rather unwanted letter amidst his already tumultuous life. He embarks upon a new quest, this time a more deeply interpersonal one as he blazes a trail down what's left of Severus Snape's memory lane. Is he truly ready for his parents', or more accurately, Severus Snape's history?

Read the story in its Original Formatting!

Find the story on FF.net!

II

A New Quest

GRIMMAULD Place was dead quiet when Harry stepped out of the fireplace and into the large drawing room.  The late afternoon sun was filtering through the shuttered windows and Harry could see dust motes floating like dainty, dreamy snowflakes in and out of the rays of light.

“Kreacher?” he asked aloud, but not too loudly for the silence was grating on him like a foreboding shadow (that and he still had not yet removed the portrait of Sirius’ mother).  Looking around his inherited home, he realized he hadn’t been here in days (or maybe weeks?), usually spending what free time he did have these days with Ginny (when she also had time away from practices and games) at The Burrow, which was always bustling with warmth, action and good food, unlike here.  

Suddenly there was a little pop! and his wizened house-elf stood hunched before him.  He was wrinklier, looking more like a pile of old than ever, his garb was his usual tattered and dirtied potato-sack-loin-cloth getup but with the addition of Regulus Black’s locket hanging from his neck, swinging softly like a pendulum from the house-elf’s recent Apparition.

“Master has returned,” the stooped and gnarled creature before him said, giving him a wily look.

“Yes, but unfortunately only for a short while again.  I’ll be needing provisions for a week - I’m going away...on...business...a business holiday.  Can you manage that?  Please?”  Harry waited for Kreacher to take action.  When the house elf continued to stare at him, unmoving, Harry began to feel both a wee bit agitated and anxious.  “Kreacher, did you hear me?”

Creepy!

I have a love of dark, creepy things.  My partner knows this.  My partner shows me this wallpaper this evening after supper:

Awesome!  Nice and creepy!  

But then I thought to myself, "I've seen that demon before!"  I promptly told my partner so and brought up a little drawing I did over four years ago now:

Uncanny!  

My only explanation is I tapped into the collective unconscious (what I can make out of the signature the painting was completed and signed in 2005; I have never seen this painting until today) and brought forth the similar rendering of this entity (both have a hooded-cloak-type-garb, mismatched eyes with one being shiny and the other being dull or missing, the uneven and sharp pointy teeth, the hunched back, the red tones in the skin).  

What's really creepy to me is that the drawing I made I made to represent a violent aspect of myself...

Which makes me think the painting from 2005 (I scoured for the artist and couldn't come up with anything definitive!?) is attempting to illustrate that human plight of balancing the light and dark aspects within one's self.  The "dark" aspect could either be taunting or cowering in its body language while the "light" aspect could either be seen as in a position of defeat or of rising up into its own power.  Beautiful.

Digital sketching

I've been practicing on the tablet. Here's a couple sketches that I'm proud of:





I hope to have more soon!

New(ish) Piece; "Receding"

This is an old piece that I completed over a year ago; posted this on fb and tumblr but forgot about my blog. So here it is. I believe at the time of this piece's inception, I was obsessed with Pink Floyd's The Wall and the line "There is no pain you are receding" was the actual inspiration. The final piece followed by the rough draft sketch:

HP&THBP 1.6180339887... Ch. 1

Okay... here' goes!!!

Chapter One of my fanfiction, titled HP&THBP 1.6180339887... Since I'm extremely attached to my formatting, please take a look at my original "manuscript" here. (I'll update this with a link to it on ff.net once it's up there as well{if I go that route} - I went that route: ff.net Chapter 1).

Summary: Two years after the Final Battle, Harry Potter receives an unexpected and rather unwanted letter amidst his already tumultuous life. He embarks upon a new quest, this time an internal and deeply interpersonal one as he blazes a trail down what's left of Severus Snape's memory lane. Is he truly ready for his parents', or more accurately, Severus Snape's history?

Chapter 1 - Harry Receives a Letter

HARRY Potter was not quite sure what to do after he read the letter in his hands. He felt rather nauseous, in fact. He remembered a time, some eight odd years or so ago (Merlin's bollocks, had it been that long already?) when he had stood just like this - hand-scrawled letter in hand, feeling outright sick to the stomach with this warm, sloshing anticipation. However this letter was from a different Headmaster of Hogwarts than the one who had sent him his letter as an eleven-year-old boy. Very different indeed.

Harry's stomach somersaulted sickeningly.

Severus Snape had been dead for nearly two years and yet here Harry was receiving a letter from the old bat.

As if it were yesterday, he thought.

He shuddered, but decided to read the letter over again, just to make sure he had read it correctly, just to make sure it was real.

Severus Snape & Lily Evans, fanart

A kawaii little piece of fanart.  Harry Potter - verse; Severus Snape and Lily Evans as teens smoking fags and dressed in muggle clothes.  I suppose you could say this is from my fanfic.  This is an old drawing (circa 2011 or so!) - I think I just wanted an excuse to talk about my fanfiction haha.

I ought to post the first chapter...

Nude Couple Sketch; mild nsfw

Mildly NSFW:

New Drawing

I learned to use a tablet recently.

I also remembered to update my blog.

This was supposed to be an OC but it ended up looking like some lovechild of Nymphadora Tonks and Harry Potter AND/OR a scene!Velma... either way, tablet drawing is hella fun and now I can fully realize my dream of becoming a fantastic pornographic artist. Now to just actually draw some NSFW content...

Some Sketches

A couple of sketches of mine form recently. First image in graphite with wine stains. Second image also in graphite but with magenta-coloured marker.

More of my work can be seen at: Strange Art by Teresea